The Nurse's Not-So-Secret Scandal - Wendy S. Marcus
Mills & Boon Medical Romance
Harlequin UK, 2012
ISBN: 9780263891645 (Paperback 2-in-1 edition)
eISBN: 9781408973295 (individual ebook edition)
N.B. The cover image is from the individual ebook edition
My rating
From the back cover:
"Between family nightmares and a series of lousy guys, nurse Roxie Morano’s life is a disaster zone. But enigmatic (and gorgeous!) new colleague Ryan ‘Fig’ Figelstein is ignoring her hazard warnings – instead, he’s signalling his attraction! Now Roxie’s bulletproof heart is at risk…but dare she dream Fig will stick around when he discovers all her secrets?"
The lovely Wendy S. Marcus very kindly sent me a copy of this, her latest release, in exchange for a review. Thank you so much, Wendy.
The heroine Roxie is only just managing to hold her life together when she meets the hero Fig. Hoping for a hot and heavy fling to take away some of her stress but she is left frustrated and angry when Fig stands her up then later accuses her of steal hospital drugs. However things go from bad to worse for Roxie when a sex-tape of her is put up on the internet and her mentally ill hoarder mother sets fire to their home. The only one who sticks by her is Fig. Fig is not without his own problems - a serious childhood illness that has left it's mark in more ways than one, a manipulative mother, and his own control issues - but they each find solace in each other, wanting nothing more than a casual thing. Until everything becomes much more complicated between them.
This was not what I was expecting, at all. I have never really been into books from Medical Romance line, but it appears that I have been reading the wrong ones, or perhaps it's simply that Wendy S. Marcus has taken everything about this line and turned it on it's head. I suspect it's the latter.
This story has so much spark, and it is very, very fresh. One thing that stands out for me, apart from the love-scenes (more on that in a moment), is that a lot of issues are dealt with in this book, and they are dealt with very well. To cram sex-scandals, blackmail, hoarding, mental illnesses, germaphobia, a touch of racism, and the actual romance into one [category length] book and make it work is quite impressive.
I was totally surprised by the heat level in this book, especially for the Medical line, during some of the love-scenes my eyebrows were raised so high I'm surprised they're not stuck!
The heroine is fabulous; so forward and gutsy and as far away as you can get from a lot of the dainty, pearly-white heroines you often find in romance novels. I adored her, she is the ultimate modern day heroine.
The story is gritty and believable, full of passion, heat, honesty, and real in every sense. Quite simply, I loved it.
If you like Sex and the City and ER combine the two and you will get this author's style, and that can only be a good thing!
This is my first Wendy S. Marcus book, and it will not be my last!
Recommended.
Xx
Thank you so much for this wonderful review!
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